It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an American motion picture directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 of stolen cash by a diverse and colourful group of
strangers. The ensemble comedy premiered on November
7, 1963.
Plot
The film begins as the occupants of four vehicles on a lonely highway in the Southern
California desert stop to help "Smiler" Grogan (Jimmy Durante in his last screen
appearance), who has just careened off the highway in a spectacular crash.
With his dying breaths, he tells the bystanders (consisting of Mickey Rooney,
Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters,
Sid Caesar, and Milton Berle) about "three hundred and
fifty 'G's" ($350,000) hidden in the city of Santa Rosita, less than a day's drive away, under a
mysterious "big W”. Grogan then expires, literally kicking a bucket. The witnesses immediately begin arguing over how to divide
the money and a wild race follows. Each carload of people tries to be first to get to Santa Rosita and find the money for
themselves. Many others, including a cactus-collecting RAF officer played by
Terry-Thomas and a sneaky con man played by Phil
Silvers, join the chase as it progresses.
Berle's character, J. Russell Finch, owns a company that processes edible seaweed and is
recovering from a nervous breakdown. He continually pops little pills from a medicine bottle for his nerves throughout the
picture. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Marcus, is played by Ethel Merman, whose character is
loud, overbearing and opportunistic, to great comic effect. Marcus' son, a beatnik-like
lifeguard played by Dick Shawn, is introduced by means of a wild, frenzied dance sequence
with his girlfriend (played by Barrie Chase) to rock n' roll music, "31 Flavors" (an
unabashed plug for Baskin-Robbins), sung by the Shirelles.
Unbeknownst to the treasure hunters, Captain Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) of the Santa
Rosita Police has been working on the Smiler Grogan Case for years. He suspects the various people who heard Grogan's last words
may know where the money is hidden and has their progress tracked by various police units, including helicopters.
Rooney and Hackett enlist the aid of a wealthy pilot Jim Backus, who has a penchant for
drink (even while flying.) Caesar's character and his wife (played by Edie Adams) charter a
Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" World War I-era biplane which
almost falls apart and are ultimately locked in the basement of a hardware store once they arrive in Santa Rosita.
Peter Falk and Eddie Anderson (who played
Rochester on Jack Benny's radio and TV shows) appear as Santa Rosita Yellow Cab drivers.
Silvers' character stops to pick up the bicycling Winters, whose van is kaput, but when the dim-witted van driver spills the
beans about the treasure, Silvers tricks Winters into getting out of his car. The clever Silvers leaves Winters on the roadside
while speeding off to get the money for himself (Winters' facial expressions provide the bulk of the humor in his role,
especially during this sequence). Winters later catches up with Silvers at a newly opened service station owned by two
nerdy attendants (Marvin Kaplan and Arnold Stang) and tries to attack him. Stang's character knocks Winters out with a bottle of oil and the
two try to tie him up with duct tape, but Winters gets free, goes on a rampage that destroys the station, and steals the
company's Dodge Power Wagon wrecker.
Culpepper is anticipating a nice vacation since the Smiler Grogan case—which he has worked for 15 years—will be solved once
the travelers find the hidden cash. He continues to monitor their progress as reports filter in from various police units. He
starts to get ideas of his own about what should happen to all that money, however.
Berle, Caesar, Rooney, and Hackett mug for the camera in the opening scene of
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
In time, all the main characters converge on Santa Rosita State Park, having left a trail of destruction in their wake.
Culpepper hurries to intercept them, having told his officers to back off and let him handle the situation. The money is soon dug
up under the "big W," a group of four palm trees planted diagonally to resemble the letter. Culpepper quietly approaches (after
they finish arguing about how the money will be divided) and requests that they turn themselves in. Obviously, the authorities
will be more lenient if they go voluntarily. Everyone piles into two taxicabs, and heads for police headquarters except
Culpepper, who makes a break for it.
Culpepper has decided to steal the cash himself and flee to nearby Mexico. His plan is in
place, including a fast boat to deliver him south. The treasure-seekers notice that Culpepper has turned the opposite way out of
the State Park, and he is pursued by the group. Culpepper, driving his police-issue Dodge, is
chased by the treasure-seekers and his scheme unravels. The pursuit is a great car chase on highways and through town resulting
in the eventual destruction of all three vehicles at an old building in downtown Santa Rosita that is about to be torn down.
In a madcap conclusion, all the men are tossed off a rescue ladder and the suitcase filled with cash opens. Money flutters
down like snowflakes to an excited crowd on the street below, and the male treasure hunters wind up in the hospital. This is
where the story ends; Culpepper and the other men are moaning and groaning, bruised, bandaged, in traction, lamenting the loss of the money and facing punishment. Culpepper, in visible disgust,
remarks humorously: "The only reason that you ten idiots are gonna get off lightly is because the judge will have me up there to
throw the book at." Culpepper doubts that he will laugh about something ever again, but everyone is still able to laugh when
loud-mouthed Merman slips and falls hard on a banana peel (tossed in disgust by Hackett) after
another bombastic tirade. Even Culpepper eventually breaks down and has a hearty chuckle.
Background
Although well known for serious films such as Inherit the Wind and
Judgment at Nuremberg (both starring Spencer Tracy), Kramer set out to make
the ultimate comedy film with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. At more than three hours in its original roadshow version, including overture, intermission and exit music, the result is certainly one of the
longest.
Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama (becoming one of the first Cinerama films originated with one camera), it also had an all-star cast,
with literally dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema making appearances in the film.
The film followed a Hollywood trend
in the 1960s of producing "epic" films as a way of wooing audiences away from television and back to movie theaters. Television had sapped the regular
moviegoing audience and box-office revenues were dropping, so the major studios experimented with a number of gimmicks to attract
audiences, including widescreen films.
The title was taken from Thomas Middleton's 1605
comedy A Mad World, My Masters. Kramer
considered adding a fifth "mad" to the title before deciding that it would be redundant, but noted in interviews that he later
regretted it.
The film's theme music was written by Ernest Gold with lyrics by Mack David.
In the 1970s, ABC broadcast the film on New Year's Eve. The last reported showing of the film on major network television was
on May 16, 1978.
Production
The early scenes in which Grogan goes off the road and the four vehicles briefly speed before slowing down to stop and talk
were filmed on the “Seven Steps” section of the Palms-to-Pines Highway (state highway
74), a generally east-west route mostly south of, and west of, Palm
Desert, California. Culpepper forecasts the vehicles — going east —
will turn south (a right turn), but the movie shows them turn left. The corner where Durante's car sails off, known by "Mad
World" fans as "Smiler's Point", can easily be spotted today on Highway 74, minus the man-made ramp that was removed after the
stunt was performed.
Many of the actors performed some of their own stunts, including some crashing falls by Caesar, physical antics by Jonathan
Winters, and Phil Silvers' drive into a flowing river where he almost drowned. Caesar severely injured his back while filming the
hardware store scene and was unable to return to the film for some time. Silvers injured himself shortly before the shooting of
the scene (one of the last) where the male characters chase Culpepper up several flights of stairs and onto fire-escape ladders.
As shot, the scene features Silvers' stunt double.
The gas station scene with Jonathan Winters, Marvin
Kaplan and Arnold Stang was filmed at a specially constructed set built on composer
Jimmy Van Heusen's property near Palm
Springs, California. Van Heusen first saw the completed gas station on his Friday drive from Los Angeles out to his
weekend retreat. He did not know the gas station was a movie set, thinking instead that his business manager had leased a portion
of his property for an actual service station. The destruction scene with Winters, Kaplan and Stang was filmed that weekend, with
the site cleanup scheduled for the next week. On Monday morning's return trip to Los Angeles, Van Heusen saw the destroyed gas
station lying in a pile and thought something terrible had happened. As the property owner, he believed he might be sued by
injured parties.
During shooting of the gas station's destruction, the water tower began to collapse too soon because of a special-effects
miscue. A combination of a split-screen effect and use of the optical printer repaired
the scene.
Much of the scenes that take place on what look like lonely stretches of road were filmed in areas of Southern California that
have become heavily urbanized in the decades following the movie's production; in the scene where Jack Benny encounters Milton Berle's character and his group, the
entire area, which was practically open desert in the movie, is now a modern suburban neighborhood in Yucca Valley, with a Walgreens store, a Wal-Mart, and other major retailers all around.
The airport terminal scenes were filmed at the now-defunct Rancho Conejo Airport in Newbury Park, California, though the control tower shown was constructed only for filming.
Other plane sequences were filmed at the Sonoma County Airport north of
Santa Rosa, California.
In one scene, a Beech model C-18S flies through a billboard. The plane was flown
by stuntman Frank Tallman, but a communications mixup resulted in the use of linen graphic
sheets on the sign rather than paper, as planned. Linen is much tougher than paper, and the plane was nearly destroyed on impact.
Tallman managed to fly it back to the airstrip, discovering that the leading edges of the wings had been smashed all the way back
to the wing spars. Tallman considered that the closest he ever got to dying on film.
In the movie the airplane is shown crashing through an airport restaurant plate glass window and stopping abruptly. Careful
viewing will show an arresting cable that was tied to the tail of the airplane at just the right length to make the aircraft stop
as it hits a curbing while smashing through the restaurant windows.
The park, where the big W was shown, was located on the grounds of a private residence, located in Rancho Palos Verdes, where only one of the four palm trees remains. There is speculation
that the missing trees may be replanted sometime in the future in commemoration of the film.
The final chase scene was filmed in Santa Monica, most notably at the
California Incline, and downtown Long Beach. The
cars can be seen passing the Pike amusement park with its wooden rollercoaster and traveling
around Rainbow Pier. The Arcade under Ocean Boulevard near Pine Avenue also is part of the scene.
Compulsive gambler Phil Silvers had a running craps game going during the production.
Jerry Lewis reportedly stopped by the set and left $500 poorer according to Something a
Little less Serious, a documentary on the DVD (Lewis has a brief cameo appearance early in the film).
Versions
The film ran 210 minutes in its preview showing. Stanley Kramer cut the film to 192 minutes for the premiere release. This was
the version that Kramer was satisfied with. During its Roadshow 70mm run, United Artists, seeing that it had a mammoth hit on its
hands, cut the film to 162 minutes without Kramer's involvement in order to add an extra daily showing. The general release 35mm
version runs 154 minutes (no overture or exit music). At the film's premiere, radio transmissions between the film's fictional
police played in the theater lobby and rest rooms during the intermission. The police transmissions featured Detective Matthews
(Charles McGraw) and the police personnel that follow the group. These three reports (each approx. one minute in length) may have
added to the 210 minute length.
Some of the cut footage remains missing, although 20 minutes of material was found, consisting of a mixture of Cinerama
(rectified for screen curve) footage and Ultra-Panavision footage.) MGM/UA also located a 20 minute 70mm "preview reel" which
contained a few scenes in their entirety. These two 70mm reels provided the extra scenes for the "Special Edition version with
restored footage" project. of 1991. No "out-take" footage was used, with the exception of a two-second wide shot of the
Beechcraft aircraft, needed to bridge a highly sought-after bit of Buddy Hackett being doused with a bucket of water. (Though it
is possible that the brief shot played in previews.)
While not officially referring to it as a "director's cut", Stanley Kramer helped oversee the re-incorporation of this missing
footage into a 182-minute "special edition" video version for VHS and LaserDisc. Screenwriter Tania Rose was also contacted by the Special Edition team and after viewing the
footage gave her endorsement to the project.
Because of the quality of the missing scenes, the lack of a large budget for a "film" restoration, and a lack of interest at
the time by restoration experts, it was decided that a digital tape reconstruction for presentation on Laserdisc would at least
be a venue for film fans to finally see the footage. Years later, the improved quality of DVD would make the poor quality of the
restored footage more jarring, so the standard edited version is presented instead. The "special edition" version has aired on
Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Comparisons between the two show that the extended
version is of inferior video quality to that of the DVD, since film transfer techniques and formats have improved over the ten
year period.
Currently, the best existing footage is in the form of original 70mm elements of the general release version (recent restored
versions shown in revival screenings are derived from these elements). However, some, if not all of the remaining footage does
exist in some form, although it is deteriorating because of the passage of time. A restoration effort currently is under way by
preservationist Robert A. Harris in an attempt to bring the film back as close as
possible to the original roadshow release.
The official release from MGM is the 161-minute general release version, taken from its original 35mm elements. Because of
this, it's presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, as opposed to the full 2.75:1 in anamorphic 70mm form. Two versions of the film
have been released on DVD. The first, from 2001, is a double-sided disc containing an hour of
missing scenes on the second side, along with the original documentary "Something A Little Less Serious", and trailers and TV
spots. In 2003, the film was re-released as a movie-only edition, with disc art on the disc as opposed to being dual-sided. It
should be noted that the 2001 release had a yellow spine and is now hard to find, while the 2003 release had a blue spine and is
relatively easy to find in stores. Interestingly, the colors in the cartoon credits sequence are incorrect (too red) in the
current DVD version. The older Special Edition Laserdisc version is surprisingly more accurate, with the green background in the
opening, and the subtle color changes occurring later on. The Special Edition team (consisting of volunteer "Mad World" experts
from around the country) had MGM/UA pull a 70mm print for the correct colors.
Fans on message boards such as us.imdb.com have listed the differences
between the TCM and DVD versions, since the DVD's deleted scenes are not properly organized to explain their context and some
scenes are essentially the same as seen on the DVD, only extended with a bit of material. However, even without the deleted
scenes the current DVD version contains what general audiences saw in 1963.
According to one fan's analysis of the TCM extended version (70mm 2.55:1 aspect ratio) and the DVD theatrical version (35mm
2.35:1 aspect ratio):
- The DVD does not contain the overture, and the main titles are in red, as opposed to the original multi-colored
sequence.
- The TCM version opens with the 1980s animated MGM/UA logo, while the DVD version opens with the familiar MGM Leo The Lion logo (United Artists releases are now part of the MGM library).
- Part One of the TCM extended version has 14 minutes and 2 seconds of added footage.
- Part Two of the TCM extended version has 3 minutes and 49 seconds of added footage.
- The longest stretch of time in the film without added material is 25 minutes and 3 seconds, from timecode 1:53:45 to timecode
2:18:48.
It has been rumored that Kramer's original cut lasted more than five hours, but no evidence has been found to support
this.
Home video, LaserDisc and DVD releases
The film was first released on VHS and LaserDisc by
CBS/FOX Video in 1985. In 1990, MGM/UA Home Video released "restored" video version of the
film on VHS and LaserDisc. In 2001, MGM Home Entertainment released the film on two-sided DVD with
extras. In 2003, MGM Home Entertainment released another DVD of the film but has one-sided disc containing no extras.
Cast
In alphabetical order:
Secondary characters:
Cameo appearances by:
Taglines
- It's the biggest entertainment ever to hit the Cinerama screen! (70mm Cinerama
version)
- The biggest entertainment ever to rock the screen with laughter! (35mm general release version)
- Everybody who's ever been funny is in it!
- If ever this mad, mad, mad, mad world needed It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World it's now! (1970 re-release)
Homages
- The plot of the novel Florida Roadkill by Tim
Dorsey is an homage to the film, with a wide variety of characters chasing after a suitcase containing $5 million in
stolen drug money, which was hidden by the thief before he died. There is even a direct reference to the movie, in a scene in
which a man drives over a turtle "like Jerry Lewis running over Spencer Tracy's hat in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
- The New Avengers episode "The Tale of the Big Why" seems to have borrowed
part of its storyline from It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World — at the end of the episode the characters realise they are
looking not for a metaphysical "big why" but a physical "big Y".
- In an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, the characters, following a
treasure map, find that they have not been looking for an X marked in the sand, but the location where the shadows of two crossed palm trees falls. Of
course, this would change throughout the day, but that does not matter in the greater scheme of the plot (see suspension of disbelief).
- The crossed palm trees are also used at (real world) In-N-Out Burger restaurants.
Founder Harry Snyder's favorite movie was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which is why many stores have crossing palm
trees in front, and some have two.[citation needed]
- A 1993 episode of Cheers, titled "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Bar," had the Cheers gang tearing
up the bar to find a money belt with $6,000,000 supposedly hid there by Robin Colcord
several years earlier.
- An episode of The Simpsons is named "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge".
- A 1994 episode of The Simpsons, "Homer the
Vigilante", features money supposedly hidden beneath a "big T", along with other elements borrowed from the movie, such as
Otto Meyer driving into the river while yelling at Bart. The big "W" is in the background.
Caricatures of Milton Berle and Buddy Hackett also appear during the scene where the money is being dug up.
- The Simpsons Movie mob scenes are meant to serve as a homage to this film.
- Several references to the film have been made in episodes of Mystery
Science Theater 3000:
- In Godzilla vs. Megalon there is a car chase of cars driving downs
stairs and Crow T. Robot says in a Phil Silvers
voice, "This is no place for a convertible!" The same line is used during Master Ninja when a car flies off of a dock into the water.
- Similarly, during the film Eegah, there is a scene that takes place outside a hotel
where some palm trees are shown, and Crow says (this time imitating Jimmy Durante), "It's
under a big W!" The same reference is made during The Thing That Couldn't
Die.
- During the film Laserblast, a gas station is blown up. One of the characters is
heard to remark that the place had just been rebuilt "after Jonathan Winters'
rampage."
- At various times, characters in the series can be heard to say the line "out, baby, out, out, out!" which (if not a direct
reference) bears more than a passing resemblance to a line Dick Shawn's character says during
the "digging" sequence.
- A 2007 episode of Lost opens with a framing of a "W" of palm trees, and includes a
shot of one character reproducing Phil Silvers between trees at Santa Rosita, and another reproducing the dying Jimmy Durante.
The serial also features similar theme music, a sanitarium named Santa Rosa, an implausibly crashed Beechcraft, and according to
some interpretations a similarly themed plot.
- MAD Magazine issued a book titled "It's a World, World, World, World Mad" and made
numerous references to the movie during the 1960s and 1970s. Mad artist Jack Davis
illustrated the film's poster, as well as the book-cover parody of the poster.
- An Indian film "Dhamaal" released in September 2007 was based on a similar story line. The garden in this film was the San
Sebastian garden in the coastal Indian state of Goa.
Sequel
On January 9, 2007, Karen Sharpe
Kramer, widow of Stanley Kramer, and film producer Edward Bass announced that
a sequel entitled It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD
World is in the works. The film would be, like the original, a large ensemble movie mixing comics and dramatic actors.
The story follows the descendants of the characters from the first movie who are thrust into another madcap chase to find a cache
of money after it is revealed that the bills found in the first movie were counterfeit. Original cast members Sid Caesar and Jonathan Winters, among others, may reprise their original roles.
External links
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